The donation of energy equipment from China announced last week will help provide emergency energy solution for clinics, hospitals, police stations and correctional facilities. That is according to Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
The minister says a shipment of this equipment has already left China, and is in transit to South Africa.
He says technical capacity is ready to support in relation to the appropriateness of the technical solutions that have been donated.
China donated 552 emergency energy units to South Africa.
Uninterrupted electricity supply
The Gauteng High Court Pretoria in May, ordered that government must ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to all government hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations.
This was after an application was lodged by the United Democratic Movement (UDM) and other political and civic organisations, which argued that government and Eskom had violated basic human rights by implementing load shedding.
The Department of Public Enterprises said it would appeal the decision to exempt such institutions from load shedding.
Ramokgopa says there will be consultation with provincial governments and further information on which public institutions will benefit.
“The first of the shipment of 450 of them are in transit on their way to South Africa. They left the shores of China on the week of the 14th of August. We will announce at the right time when the first shipments land and also give an indication on the first public facilities that will be benefiting from this generous donation.”
Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa giving more information on the SA-China power deal:
Debt owed to Eskom
Ramokgopa says there are limited prospects of Eskom recouping some of the debt owed to it by municipalities. He says debt owed by municipalities is as a result of the erosion of their revenue base.
“At last count it was sitting at R62 billion and we did indicate that year that it continues to grow and really there are no prospects of these municipalities first extinguishing that debt because of the erosion of the revenue base, and then of course there is very little prospect of reducing or undermining the growth of that debt, it will require some technical or financial solution to address that problem. “
Eskom will this week implement load shedding alternating between stage one and three starting from Sunday afternoon.
